In the livestock industry, animal growth is the product of many different factors, many of which are constantly or frequently changing. Tracking and predicting animal growth for feedlot operations is a challenging endeavor for those involved in raising and feeding livestock, especially in the case of large commercial feedlots, because of the many variables involved.
There are several existing modeling approaches for livestock growth. These include net energy models for both maintenance and gain, which are commonly used to formulate diets for growing and finishing livestock such as cattle. These models focus on trying to predict the amount of energy used and the amount of feed to achieve energy requirements for maintenance and gain. Other existing models, such as total digestible nutrients (TDN), focus more on feed composition and need to be converted to net energy. Regardless, each model by itself suffers from limitations, and does not account for variables that may change across a single feedlot and which impact energy usage in a herd, such as real-time assessments of animal movement, feed consumption, environmental conditions, animal genetics, management practices, facility types, and herd and rangeland management practices.